A strategy for managing New Zealand's recreational fisheries is urgently needed to avoid further restrictions, a think tank says.
Current bans on recreational fishing - such as the ban on blue cod and scallop fishing in the Marlborough Sounds - are an indication the government needs to better manage recreational fisheries, according to the latest study from the New Zealand Initiative.
The report - authored by Randall Bess - makes a number of key recommendations for how recreational fishing should be managed in the future.
Its key advice is to develop a recreational fisheries policy within the Ministry of Primary Industries.
"Successive governments did not invest much in recreational fisheries nor did they address the tough issues confronting shared fisheries, where the fishing sectors have a shared interest in the taking of a fish stock," Dr Bess said.